The present invention relates to a surgical instrument and in particular to a surgical instrument having a dual purpose which is for attachment to a cutting block.
During knee surgery, cutting blocks are used to define positions of cuts. These cutting blocks include slots for receiving instruments for cutting and resection. It is known to provide instruments that attach to the cutting slot of a cutting block to indicate the height of a resection or to allow a plane of a cut to be visualised.
In knee surgery, the plane of a cut may be visualised using an instrument sometimes referred to as an “angel wing”, “visualisation wing” or “resection guide” which inserts into the cutting slot. The angel wing is generally planar and enables the plane of the cut to be visualised by a surgeon.
At a different stage in the knee surgery procedure, the surgeon needs to set the superior/inferior height of the proximal tibial resection, using a tibial cutting block. In this case, a tibial stylus is inserted into the cutting slot of the tibial cutting block. The tibial stylus may include a pointer that can be adjusted to various different heights from the cutting slot to allow the surgeon to set the desired height or have a fixed pointer at a particular height.
It would be desirable to reduce the inventory and number of instruments required for knee surgery.